Methacton school board hires law firm to assist with stadium lights

WORCESTER — In an 8-1 vote Tuesday, the Methacton Board of School Directors hired of the law firm of Dischell, Bartle, and Dooley PC to represent the school district as it continues to work toward the installation of lights and a turf field at Methacton High School.

Prior to the vote, an attorney from the firm had been handling the work pro bono. With the expectation that the ordinance will be passed soon, however, the district will need more intensive representation as the process continues to move forward, board embers said.

“(Attorney Eric Frey) will be able to hit the ground running. He’s familiar with all the parties and many of the players will be the same with the lighting ordinance as with the rest of the project,” said Joyce Petrauskas, the president of the board.

“Eric Frey handled the ordinance part of the lights and that was just to get the ordinance defined for the township to vote on,” said board member Jim Phillips, who also serves as the chairman of the board’s property committee. “From that, the township in that ordinance requires us to go for conditional use for the lights, so when we make an application based on that ordinance, we have to go to a conditional use hearing.”

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The conditional use hearing before Worcester Township Board of Supervisors will set guidelines on the actual use of the stadium lights once they are installed.

Additionally, the law firm will represent the district through the land development process required for the proposed installation of an artificial playing surface at the football field.

“When we do the fields, we have to go through land development, which goes before the supervisors and that is where you need representation,” Phillips said. “The supervisors have already told us that they’re not going to waive this. Sometimes townships will waive that because government agencies working with each other, they work it out, but they’re requiring us to go through that, so we have to be covered and do what’s in the best interest of the district.”

The board received multiple bids for the contract. Dischell, Bartle, and Dooley submitted the lowest base bid, with a cost of $150 an hour, although there were several other fees attached.

The firm successfully represented the Abington School District several years ago when that district was going through a similar process.

“The cost is one component of it. The other piece is the involvement that Eric’s had with the progress and the project so far,” said board member Christian Nascimento. “Secondly, the experience that they had with Abington, I think those two (factors) make up for any discrepancy in price.”

The lighting ordinance has been discussed at great length by the Worcester Township Board of Supervisors, most recently on Feb. 20, when the discussion lasted more than an hour, and several small changes were made, which led to a delay in the vote.

The supervisors’ vote on the modified ordinance is not expected to take place before the end of March and could be delayed until April.